34

A few hours later only Rebecca and Turgoth remained in the Council Hall. They were gazing out of one of the tall arched windows, waiting to see Pegasus, the winged horse, land in the courtyard of the headquarters. They had asked him to transfer them to the Elysian Fields.

Rebecca sighed deeply and Turgoth wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “Don’t worry my love,” he said tenderly. “I’m sure that Zeus will approve your plan.”

“But we are talking about a general invasion of Tartarus and that is something that has never happened throughout eternity.”

“There is a first time for everything,” the king said.

“And if the issue of balance between Good and Evil is raised?”

“Nonsense! Things have changed. You can be sure that I’m going to make this very clear to the Gods,” Turgoth replied decisively.

Rebecca laughed softly and laid her head on his shoulder. “My good king, I see you are ready to quarrel again, even with the father of the Gods. Control your temper a bit, please.”

Turgoth was about to say something when they saw a crystal spaceship land in the courtyard and Julia Feredini emerge from within, running.

“If she’s coming here and not to the Cosmodrome it must mean that the matter at hand is very urgent,” Rebecca said.

A few seconds later the fearless warrior, who had for centuries been one of the leaders of the Orizons on Earth, entered the Council Hall looking pale and tearful.

“What’s wrong, Julia?” Rebecca asked.

“There has been great destruction on Earth!”

“Tell us, then!”

Feredini didn’t seem to know where to start. “There’s chaos everywhere! Many thousands have lost their lives or have been wounded! And this is only the beginning!”

“The Sartani?” Turgoth asked.

Julia shook her head. “No. This time we are not just dealing with some terrorist attacks, but with a cosmological event and a colossal natural disaster.”

Rebecca guided her to an armchair and offered her a glass of water. “Come, my dear. Calm down and try to relate it all in order.”

“The Earth was hit by an enormous solar storm,” Julia began. “Over the course of the last few days scientists were surprised to observe some unusual activity on the surface of the sun. They reported the unnaturally rapid creation of dozens of spots that yesterday started to merge to form a very large one, which is visible even to the naked eye.

“A few hours ago, that caused a huge solar storm and launched into space hundreds of thousands of tons of electrically charged gas. By diabolical coincidence, this gas headed straight for Earth. The electrical storm occurred in three waves. The first wave, which arrived in barely eight minutes, destroyed the communications equipment in all aircraft flying at that moment...”

“Without communication there must have been many plane crashes,” Rebecca said.

“If only it were just that, my princess,” Julia said. “You know, of course, that the Earth is protected from the solar winds by a shield, which is its magnetic field. This natural shield, however, has its limits and ultimately could not withstand the impact of the unprecedented solar tsunami that compressed, deformed and weakened it even more.

“So, with the planet completely unprotected, the second electrical wave struck and resulted in even more devastation - this time turning off the engines of all the airplanes in mid-flight. It also caused serious damage to the satellites, many of which have come out of orbit, and some have even begun to fall to Earth. Then the third and last wave of the solar storm arrived and millions of tons of charged gas struck the Earth at a speed of thousands of miles per second. This last wave overloaded and destroyed all the large power transformers worldwide.”

“A global blackout!” Turgoth murmured, trying to take in the enormity of what he was hearing.

“Exactly, my king,” Feredini replied. “A worldwide blackout - which means a general collapse of the electricity network that in turn has triggered the collapse of every other network, including water supply, communication, road traffic and all the other networks that constitute what modern human civilisation calls the supergrid.”

“Damage on this scale will take years to repair,” Turgoth said.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Julia agreed. “Even the most developed nations will need at least a year to repair this damage on the most basic level. Until then, however...”

“The Earth will have returned to the Dark Ages!” Turgoth finished her sentence.

“Yes, the Dark Ages... and humans are not prepared for this at all. With the majority of natural disasters on Earth, the areas that suffer most are those which are less economically and technologically developed. In this case the exact opposite is going to happen, as those who will undergo the most hardship will be the citizens of developed countries, who are totally dependent on technology.”

“In a modern city, two or three days without electricity could be tolerable, perhaps,” Turgoth said. “But if they stay like that for months or even years... well then, I think that none of us can estimate the chaos that will ensue.”

Julia nodded. “Indeed, ‘chaos’ is the right word. It has already begun everywhere. From the very first moments of the general blackout, thousands of humans were trapped in elevators or in subway tunnels. Disorder prevailed in all the streets as soon as the traffic lights went out. So, apart from those terrible plane crashes, a huge number of road accidents began to occur as well.

“Meanwhile, all the people who were in their houses realised that not only did they not have electricity, but they had no running water either, since the pumps that distribute it require electricity too. So they left their homes in an attempt to procure bottled water but none of the stores are open anymore... And although it is only the first day after the solar storm, thousands of people have already begun breaking into supermarkets, plundering and pillaging everything they can get their hands on. Imagine what the situation will be like in the cities within a month...”

“And this chaos will be made worse by the collapse of the telecommunications network,” Rebecca commented.

“Indeed,” Julia said. “Everyone has been cut off from everyone else. No telephone network, whether landline or mobile, works anymore. Very few have had the opportunity to find out about the extent of the destruction or about the possibility of state mobilisation or care.

“Luckily, some radio stations that have access to generators continue to broadcast, trying to inform the people of what is happening. They obviously have some receivers that run on batteries. But a few days from now, there will only be a few state radio stations still in operation and they will only keep going until their generators run dry. And even those stations will have very few listeners as the batteries in people’s radios run out and the supply of new ones is non-existent.”

“I imagine that there is already a general mobilisation of all governments, isn’t there?” Rebecca asked.

“The problems already being faced by the police, the fire brigades and the hospitals are just as bad. Some of these services can still operate, since they have generators which have enough energy for a few days... But what will happen as the number of incidents that need to be dealt with rises exponentially? And what will occur once they, too, run out of fuel and electricity?”

“I’m guessing that in a few days there will also be a complete paralysis of all transport,” Turgoth said.

“This has already begun” Julia said. “Realising the seriousness of the situation, millions of people who find themselves far from their families are trying to travel home to be close to their loved ones. Huge crowds are forming at airports and train stations - in vain though, because virtually no vehicle, not even buses, is in operation anymore. The scenes of panic are already indescribable...

“Of course, many can still travel with their own vehicles but this is also going to change dramatically within the next few days. The petrol stations can no longer service anyone since their tanks are underground and their pumps run on electricity. This means that soon only the old-technology vehicles will be operating, as the modern ones with electrical systems are already useless.”

“So you believe that state-run organisations won’t be able to offer sufficient aid?”

“Unfortunately not, princess,” Feredini replied. “I also believe that, as time goes by and chaos and despair spread over the Earth, people trying to survive will become increasingly violent - so much so that not even the most organised governments will be able to keep them under control.”

“The looting of shops and warehouses, burglaries, robberies, murders...” Turgoth agreed. “Ordinarily peaceful people will transform into monsters for the sake of a few drops of water or a piece of bread for their children and themselves.”

“Yes, because no one will be able to buy anything from anywhere,” Julia said. “Credit cards are no longer of any use. The banks are closed and the cash machines are out of order, so where will they get their money from? But even if someone has plenty of cash, this won’t benefit them since there will no longer be any stores open... In a few days all the people in the cities will be forced to leave their homes in search of food and water, as well as of objects that are now vital, like matches, lighters, flashlights, candles, lanterns, gas cylinders, battery-operated radios and bicycles... But they won’t be able to buy any of them, so they will simply be seized by the strongest.”

“To sum up then,” Turgoth said, “in a few weeks, all state mechanisms will have collapsed in most of the countries on Earth... Billions of people will find themselves cut off and helpless, with no water, food or medicine and... they will probably start killing each other to get their hands on it.”

“Most of them will die,” Rebecca said in horror, slumping into a chair. “Every time the sun disappears into the horizon, the darkness of the night will spread everywhere. Cities, the centres of human civilisation that once were full of light and life, will transform into dark jungles in which the most desperate beings on planet Earth will have to fight with the most savage for their lives...

“Many will leave their cities and seek water from rivers, springs or wells and food from the countryside... Endless lines of wretched people will fall exhausted on the sides of roads and few will be able to stop to help them...”

“And to all this we should add the threat of the Sceptomorphs that lurk in the darkness ready to devour them,” Turgoth added. “They will grow stronger from the energy all this fear and these negative circumstances create. And, if attacked by the forces of Tartarus, well then, without their modern weapons, humans won’t stand a chance against the Demons.”

“I estimate that within a year, eight out of ten people on Earth will be dead,” Julia said in despair, her eyes full of tears.

Rebecca rose decisively. “No they won’t! Not if we can do something about it. We now have another reason to convince the Gods of our plan, so that, if we succeed and survive, we can teach humans our way of life.”